Link to publisher version (URL)
Abstract
Labor’s “Gotcha” moment seemed to have backfired badly with Treasury and Finance Secretaries, together with the head of the Parliamentary Budget Office, distancing their units from claims about a $10 billion black hole. Labor’s advice from these Departments was provided with regard to policies outlined prior to the period of caretaker Government. Rather than point to a specific mistake related to earlier policy calculations, Labor could have just kept hammering the point about costings in general. Nonetheless, as Crikey correspondent Bernard Keane observed: ‘‘I’m of the view that the costings imbroglio doesn’t matter a jot: voters are aware that the Coalition has dodgy form on costings, and they’re prepared to back it anyway.
Publication Details
Anthony Ashbolt, BLOG: Costings become a guessing game, Illawarra Mercury, 30 August 2013.